Seven years ago, Workday broke new ground as it convened an analyst summit about which I wrote
“Few vendors have the guts to be open to such a smart and opinionated bunch as Workday was during its Technology Day yesterday. Like a marathon tennis match with plenty of volleys and lobs and aces, the back and forth was something to watch.”
“So, I left wondering why more vendors don't have such sessions. It would accomplish two goals - brief market influencers in an intense session and get plenty of feedback for product improvement.”
Reminiscing about the first event during last week’s summit (see my notes from the day here) , CEO Aneel Bhusri reminded us how far the world has come. “We were 495 employees, about $ 60 million in revenues, on release 10 …the big thing then was (Joe Korngiebel working up the UX for) the iPad”
Workday has grown its revenues nearly 35 fold since and Joe has evolved the UX through countless iterations, now in release 28. The room was again in a U shaped setting, but it was at a much better location, the Cavallo Point resort in spectacular Sausalito.
And Workday raised the bar for the social event.
It divided the ever-competitive analysts into six teams who blended 4 red wines and branded their teams with creative names like “Vinfluence”. A panel of judges - one from each table blind tasted the blends and picked the winner. Our team had the best name – The Grapeful Dead courtesy of Eric Glass of Workday, but we came in 3rd in the tasting.
I admit we tried to cheat and bribe our way to winning – knowing my analyst colleagues sure they did the same. But a good time was had by all.
Other vendors have since followed suit and put their own twists to such summits, but few match the intensity Workday brings to such events – especially now that Workday has raised the bar for analyst debauchery
Photo Credit above
Photo Credit below Stacey Harris
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